If It Was Today...

Marlborough Wine Tasting

Posted on February 11, 2025 by If It Was Today

It would be foolish to come to Marlborough and not go wine tasting, so our activity for today was obvious. The problem was which wines to taste – there are so many to choose from. I suggested that we focus on Pinot noir, both rose and red, and use the tastings to stock up on wine for the next leg of the trip. We ruled out the major wineries – why come to New Zealand to taste wines we can get at home – and focused on boutique wineries with an excellent reputation. That narrowed things down, but not as much as you might think. A bit more research and pruning by Jan got us down to six very interesting wineries along an easy route. There is no way we are visiting six wineries in one day, but we didn’t have reservations so we thought we’d play it by ear and see where walk-ins were available.

On the drive to the first winery we loved the contrast between the lush vineyards beside the road, and the dry hills in the distance.

Although I’d suggested we focus on Pinot noir, on our first stop at Fromm Winery we opted for the set summer tasting, and we’re glad we did. You could add others wines to the set flight, so we included a premium Pinot noir in addition to the standard Pinot. Oh my, but it was good.

The flight ended with a Riesling Spatlese that was also amazing. We didn’t have any intention of buying Riesling – Canada has some wonderful ones – but we couldn’t resist. This wasn’t going as planned.

Our next stop was Te Whare Ra where we had made a last minute reservation, since they had three set tastings a day, and didn’t accept walk-ins. Fantastic choice. We were fortunate that our tasting was under-booked. There can be 15-20 people at a tasting, but we had six, and the owner walked us through a half dozen amazing wines. The passion, knowledge, and love of her wines shone through with every wine. It was a fabulous experience – serendipitous opportunities to meet face to face with the winemaker is one of the experiences that I treasure. We did buy Pinot noir red and rose here, but we also bought another Riesling and a blend of Gewertz, Riesling, and Pinot Gris … something that I never would have expected. I could bore you with how the fact that this wine was co-fermented made a huge difference, but I’ll save it for later.

Toru is Māori for “three” for the three grapes in this blend

Then it was off for what turned out to be our final stop of the day for a tasting and charcuterie board.

We enjoyed fabulous local cheese and sampled wine as we enjoyed the view over the vineyards. Note that we were now looking in the opposite direction and the hills were green with trees, rather than brown.

We had some entertainment for our tasting, with the local rooster checking us out.

We bought another Pinot noir, but also a Chardonnay – so much for plans! And we also bought a sparkling wine, so we will be able to have an ad hoc meeting of The Other Champagne Club.

The labels for this winery were all designed by a local clothes designer. Very nice.

And for those of you who are doing the math on the tastings, I was driving, but I wasn’t swallowing. So I could still taste!

Posted in Travel | Tagged Blenheim, Marlborough, New Zealand, Photography, Travel, Wine | Leave a comment

Blenheim

Posted on February 10, 2025 by If It Was Today

We had to be out of the hotel in Christchurch by 10:00 AM. This is typical checkout time in NZ so it gets us on the road earlier than might be the case if we were left to our own devices. That probably isn’t a bad thing. But we had time for lattes from the Truffle Cafe and for breakfast in our room.

It was overcast this morning, something that we haven’t seen often on this trip. But it’s good for driving. The changing landscape in New Zealand never ceases to amaze me. We went from flat farmland near Christchurch, to river valleys with hills on either side, to mountain roads, to driving along the ocean – all within the span of two hours. No pictures of this journey because, once again, eyes glued to the road!

We stopped for lunch at the Slam Club in Kaikoura. It was a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, but the reviews were very good so we took a chance, and were glad we did. We had a braised venison sandwich (venison is very big here) and it was delicious. I’d definitely recommend it the next time you are driving through. Then it was onward to Blenheim where we checked into another of Jan’s fabulous finds.

Blenheim is the gateway to Marlborough, and Marlborough is one of New Zealand’s major wine producing areas. I’m sure you can see where this is going. One of the NZ wineries we can get at home actually has a tasting room right in town, and it’s within walking distance. I went to check it out. Turns out we were too late for the tastings today, but I could buy a bottle of their wine to take back to the Tin Hut. (You know exactly what happened next, don’t you!) The walk back was pleasant, along the small stream.

I couldn’t help taking pictures of the wildlife on the walk. This picture is unusual – it almost looks like this seagull is playing fetch with the stick. Or maybe he was emulating politicians and claiming it was his, all his, just because he could. We will never know.

And here is another cormorant.

A little bridge across the stream leads to home.

You will be shocked to learn that along the way I couldn’t resist taking pictures of flowers. These flowers were mostly dry, but still very pretty. If anyone knows what they are, please let me now – Siri lookup wasn’t helpful.

The Tin Hut comes with a lovely covered deck, and since we’d had a full lunch and I had a cold bottle of local rose wine, we decided that today would be perfect day to dine in.

Jan has already claimed the basket chair for tomorrow

Here is the rose wine I bought at Astrolabe. Not available at home.

As I write this, Jan is researching options for wine tastings tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Blenheim, New Zealand, Photography, Travel, Wine | 2 Comments

Yet Another Botanical Garden

Posted on February 9, 2025 by If It Was Today

One of the comments to this blog recommended that we visit the Akoroa Peninsula if we were in Christchurch. It looks very interesting, and we were sorely tempted, but in the end we decided against driving today. We had a four and a half hour drive yesterday, and another four hour drive tomorrow, so we opted to let the car sit today. But it is definitely on my list for our next visit to Christchurch, though we will need to stay more than two nights. That seems to be a theme for our next trip here.

Christchurch is known as a garden city. There is a large park and botanical garden a short walk from our hotel. We also have an arboretum in Ottawa, but you know … winter…? Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for shorts and cool linen dresses. So we applied sunscreen, put on our sun hats and headed out for a walk.

It’s a summer Sunday afternoon here, so the locals were out in force, along with the tourists. But the park is big enough that it was never overly crowded. It was lovely and cool.

As you know, I love unusual vegetation pictures, like this one of a large fungus beside a tree stump. Abstract art!

The botanical garden had a section devoted to native New Zealand vegetation. We love how different it is from anything we see at home. For this next picture, Jan is in the frame to give you a sense of scale.

But I also wanted to zoom in on the branches of the tree. It is a jumble of branches going every which way – total beautiful chaos.

And then, when we looked at the trunk, we saw this. I suspect it is a parasitic plant, but it looks like something out or Tolkien, which seems appropriate for New Zealand.

And of course, lots of birds, some native, and some introduced.

One of the things we’ve been doing on this trip is trying to spot the Manuka trees. Here is what the leaves look like.

We know it was a Manuka tree because it had a sign, telling us what it was.

We love nature, but for us, this is the best way to observe nature – with gravel paths and small plaques identifying the species. I may have grown up on the farm, but by now I’m definitely a city mouse.

One of the benefits of walking through a botanical garden is that you learn all sorts of interesting (at least to us) details about plants. It is basically a museum that is outdoors. One section of the garden had a number of different species of Veronica. They all came from the same original seed, but have changed to adapt to the many different climate niches in New Zealand. One of these was called The Remarkables, because it is adapted to live in harsh alpine conditions. We visited The Remarkables just last week, so this was cool.

Here is a sampling of some of the other plants we saw today.

And here is another of those amazing New Zealand trees.

I’ll close with this picture. It was taken from a quiet spot in the botanical garden where we rested on a bench, in the shade, overlooking the Avon.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Botanical Gardens, Christchurch, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Christchurch

Posted on February 8, 2025 by If It Was Today

The weather gods have continued to smile on us. It was sunny and warm (not hot, just nicely warm) as we left Dunedin this morning. Two nights, and one day, simply wasn’t enough time. More on that later, but for now, here was the view from our room just before departure.

We spent most of today driving (4 1/2 hours), with a stop for lunch at the Zest Restaurant in Timaru. We ate outside (Lamb salad and Moroccan Chicken salad) and were treated to live music for the second half of our lunch (Susan Be. – include the “.” if you look for her music) with a mix of original and cover folk songs. It was an unexpected find that added to the day.

I don’t have many scenery pictures today, so I’m going to bore you with food pictures. Specifically, New Zealand specialty food. A friend told us they had New Zealand butter over the holidays and it was almost a religious experience. They said we absolutely had to try it. I’m not sure it was religious, but it was very very good, on new crop potatoes and on toast with local Apricot jam.

On our trip to Milford Sound, the bus driver told about the amazing properties of Manuka honey. It aroused my curiosity – about what the tree looks like, how to pronounce Manuka, and of course, the taste. So I treated myself to a small jar of pure Manuka honey to try with New Zealand butter on toast tomorrow morning.

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that we really should have spent more time in Dunedin. But we said the same thing at the cottage. We have yet to find anywhere we don’t want to return to. Our first 3-week trip to New Zealand in 2023 led to a second 5-week trip this year, and it is already clear that we will be back for more.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Christchurch, Dunedin, Food, Manuka, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 1 Comment

Dunedin: A Treasure Hunt

Posted on February 7, 2025 by If It Was Today

Dunedin is a UNESCO Creative City with a rich arts history. In 2014, artists were invited to paint murals on ten city walls. The idea has taken off, and there are now over 50 wall murals around Dunedin. One of the local tourist attractions is the Dunedin Street Art Trail. For those who want to learn more about this, see:

https://www.dunedinnz.com/insiders/the-insiders-guide-to-the-dunedin-street-art-trail

This is probably a good point to warn you that this post is going to be very photo-heavy. I’ll provide context where I can, but some of the pictures are just cool pictures and I couldn’t help myself.

As I said, there is a lot of street art in Dunedin. We even noticed some of it on our drive into town. But as we went in search of the start of the trail, we had trouble finding our way. It’s almost as if we’ve lost our ability to navigate with paper maps. At least some of us … not mentioning anyone in particular here, but… it’s me…

We were looking for No Name Alley, which is perhaps not the clearest name, but finally we found it, and … well, see for yourself.

This had one of the larger, and more impressive murals, covering two full walls of the building.

This next picture is cool for a few reasons. It is very large, very realistic, and almost has a 3-D effect. But it is also on the side of a commercial building, and they use the space for business. At first I thought the truck detracted from the effect, but in the end I decided I liked it. The mural is practical, accessible, and open for everyone to enjoy as they go about their daily business. It also gives you an idea of the scale.

Now I’m going to show you a lot of murals without much explanation, because I can.

Sometimes other other media were added to the murals.

The sculptures look exactly like the real thing, and have about the same intelligence.

Some of the walls are a mostly blank canvas, but others have pipes and vents. Some murals work around these obstructions, while others actively incorporate them into the mural. I like the way this yellow submarine incorporates the vent.

There were so many murals that eventually we were incorporated into the picture. This one shows Jan photographing the mural on the opposite wall.

And in this one, it looks like I’m being sprayed with paint.

A lot of the pictures had social commentary messages.

I don’t think the one for #47 will be this polite…

I’m guessing that a local group opposed a plan to demolish this building. In any case, the full message on the iron grills (in case you can’t read it from the photo) is: “We have re-used these buildings, having battled the might of foes. They tried rules and wealth, we applied tools and self, or so this story goes.” I like it.

I spotted this next mural on the way to dinner. A very powerful image that highlights New Zealand native species that have gone extinct in the last thousand years.

Here is a larger image of the extinctions.

There were also murals with humorous themes.

This next one shows how the boundary between mural art and true graffiti begins to blur here. But it does it in a way that doesn’t deface the art, but is respectful and in many ways complements it. I like that too.

We ended the day with a lovely dinner at the Eureka Cafe where we played “name that tune” trying to identify the classic rock playing in the cafe. It took us back to our trip to Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island, where we did exactly the same thing. Thank God for Shazam!

I’ll close with a picture of unusual berries along the street, because … that’s what I do.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Christchurch.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Dunedin, New Zealand, Photography, Street Art, Travel | Leave a comment

Slope Point

Posted on February 6, 2025 by If It Was Today

In the comments section a few days ago, Wendy suggested we should go to Slope Point. To be completely honest, I’d never even heard of Slope Point before. A quick investigation with Dr. Google (or in my case, Dr. DuckDuckGo) told me that it is the southernmost point on New Zealand’s South Island. That would also make it the farthest south that we have ever been, so of course we had to see it.

It was too far from the cottage for a day trip, but we realized it was more-or-less on the way to Dunedin, so we updated our plans. An unexpected bonus was that we were now driving along the Scenic Southern Route. No pictures from the drive – eyes on the road all the way – but I can say that it was amazing, without being terrifying. And we can offer these from Slope Point.

The sea was fairly calm but still very impressive. Apparently rogue waves have swept people to their death while fishing on the point, even when the sea looks calm.

Duncan asked us to wave to Antarctica, so we obliged.

Just over the horizon, Antarctica (actually, way over the horizon)

I don’t think Antarctica waved back.

The ground right at the point was covered in a plant unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. (Seeing unusual plants happens a lot in New Zealand.) Here is a view of the ground cover.

But if you look closer, you see this.

You can see a lot more detail, but you don’t get a sense of scale. This should help.

If anyone knows what the plant is, please let me know.

Then it was onward to Dunedin where we checked into a lovely apartment (another one of Jan’s finds) with views over the city and the countryside.

We don’t have firm plans for tomorrow, but we will likely walk around town admiring the street art, and the local microbrewery looks very interesting. We will see…

Posted in Travel | Tagged Dunedin, New Zealand, Photography, Slope Point, Travel | 1 Comment

Omaui Scenic Reserve

Posted on February 5, 2025 by If It Was Today

The cottage where we are currently staying is steps away from the Omaui Scenic Reserve that is preserving native New Zealand plants and birds. One of the birds is the Tui. It is a member of the honeyeater family, and the name is well deserved. They love bird feeders with sugar water. We know this because there is a feeder on our patio and we have enjoyed listening to the Tui (they are very vocal) and watching them use the feeder. It isn’t hard to see where the term “pecking order” originated.

Tui asserting his dominance – note the white tuft at the throat

And here is a picture of the Tui feeding. The tube has a ball bearing that blocks the flow, and the Tui push it in and drink the sugar water.

The reserve has a walking path that leads to a lookout where you can see Stewart Island, just off the coast of the South Island. Jan decided to use the “cottage day” to read a book that was in the cottage. It isn’t clear if she will finish before we have to leave, but she is trying her best. I decided to take the hike through the reserve because … it was there. The path started gently enough.

I’ve been wanting to see the Manuka trees for the last couple of days, and suddenly I was seeing hundreds of them.

And then even more – the path was lined with Manuka trees on both sides.

I’m not sure if this next picture works, but I loved the play of shadow and light on the bare trunks of the Manuka trees. Very calming, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture.

As the path continued upward, the vegetation became more and more lush. Lots of colours and textures.

The path started very wide, but as I walked, it began to narrow…

I had to duck under fallen trees…

Until the path looked like this. Yes, this is the path, straight ahead.

At this point, if I’d been in Canada I would have been concerned about ticks. If I’d been in Australia, I’d have been concerned for my life. But in New Zealand, I pressed on and was treated to a view of Stewart Island.

Then it was back to the cottage to prepare for dinner and then a nice long barefoot walk along the beach. The beach was fabulous, but the seaweed was rather drab today. So you are in luck … no more seaweed pictures.

And after the walk, refreshments on the deck. This picture is for our regular Wednesday pub crew at home (it’s Wednesday here). Wishing you were here … and very glad we aren’t there.

I mentioned the Tui feeders at the beginning of this post. While barbecuing dinner (and writing this post), we got to watch them some more.

Here is a picture that gives you a view of the complete feeder.

Turns out that the owner is a wood carver and he carved this. There are a few more of his carvings around the cottage. He is very talented. Here are some of the carvings.

In the comments, Wendy suggested we should check out Slope Point – the southernmost point on New Zealand’s South Island. We were hesitating because of the distance, and then realized it was more or less on our path to Dunedin tomorrow, so we’ve added that to our itnierary. Thanks for the suggestion Wendy.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Manuka, New Zealand, Omaui, Photography, The Beach, Travel | 1 Comment

On The Beach

Posted on February 4, 2025 by If It Was Today

We headed south to Invercargill today. One of the people we met in Queenstown told us that Invercargill “has nothing to offer” … but our accommodation was booked so we headed south to see for ourselves. The place Jan booked was south of the city, so we had to drive through town. Our first impression was not great. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it definitely didn’t look all that interesting either. We pressed bravely on anyway.

On the south side of town the rural countryside transitioned into “cottage” country – a “cottage” is called a “bach” in New Zealand. It was pretty convincing, complete with gravel roads. I had confidence in Jan’s ability to pick accommodation. Jan wasn’t quite as sure. But then we arrived at a wonderful tiny house with views over the ocean. We quickly unpacked and headed down to the beach for a barefoot walk in the sand.

We weren’t tempted to swim – the water is far colder than it was on the east coast of the north island – but it was perfect for walking barefoot. We love doing this, collecting stones and looking at the seaweed that washes up on the beach. So today, rather than more pictures of trees and flowers, you are going to be treated to pictures of seaweed on the Omaui Beach. Lucky you!

I won’t subject you to pictures of stones, except for this one perfect stone I found for Jan.

Then it was back to the “bach” for a relaxing beverage on the patio watching the surf.

We are steps away from the Omaui Reserve with walking paths through the bush and views of Stewart Island at the top. That is on our plate for tomorrow, along with more beach walks and beer/wine on the patio after.

Posted in Travel | Tagged New Zealand, Photography, The Beach, Travel | 8 Comments

Milford Sound

Posted on February 3, 2025 by If It Was Today

Everyone who has been to New Zealand told me that I absolutely MUST visit Milford Sound. To be completely honest, my reaction before the trip was “…meh”.

In the end, Jan decided that we probably should see what all the fuss was about, so she booked a tour and boat ride. I tracked the ride on my smart watch, and if you look at the path of the boat ride, it really does look …meh.

Boy, was I mistaken. This simple map of the route completely fails to give you a sense of what is in store. Thank you Jan for booking the tour.

It’s possible to drive your car to Milford Sound, but we decided to take the bus tour because 1) no need for one of us to drive the very narrow winding roads, 2) no problem finding parking, and 3) we could both enjoy the scenery on the bus ride. And oh boy, is the scenery amazing. You are overwhelmed even before you get to the main attraction.

The driver provided interesting commentary about the scenery, the geography, the vegetation, and the people who built the road. He did all of this while navigating the narrow, winding roads driving a 14 meter long bus. He explained how trees manage to grow on the very steep mountain sides. It is a two-hundred-year process that begins with blue-green algae, then lichen, then moss, and finally beech trees. The trees anchor themselves to the hillside, but not that effectively, so on a regular basis there are “tree slides” where all the trees slide down the mountainside, leaving bare rock so the the process can start all over again. You can see the slides everywhere. Here is one example. Note that the three slides are in different stages of regrowth.

Another interesting things he pointed out was the “hanging valleys” that were created by the glaciers during the last ice age. Basically, the weight of the ice in the main valley pushed out the sides, creating a U-shaped indentation well above the main valley floor. Here is a picture of one.

When we were on the boat ride, we saw more examples of hanging valleys, with lakes in the valley and waterfalls into Milford Sound.

I started this post by saying we weren’t convinced that a trip to Milford Sound would be worthwhile. We were so very wrong. It is awe inspiring. We started taking pictures and eventually stopped (mostly) because we knew pictures could never capture the experience. We tried to just soak it all in, and mostly succeeded. We did take a few pictures, and I’ll offer a few here to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Glacier, river, fiord, rainforest, all in one picture

These pictures are a poor imitation of the live experience, but they are all that I can offer. If you are in New Zealand, go see for yourself.

One other side note. It rains in Milford Sound about 240 days of the year. We were treated to a beautiful sunny day, with barely a cloud in the sky. It almost qualified as a drought for this area. We aren’t complaining.

I relaxed on the drive back to Te Anau, grateful yet again that I didn’t have to drive. Two hours in the sun on the water was wonderful, but exhausting. After freshening up and having a drink in our room, we had dinner at one of the many tasty, and very busy, restaurants in Te Anau. Then it was back to our hotel for a relaxing evening writing this blog and watching the sun set behind the hills.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Milford Sound, New Zealand, Photography, Sunset, Te Anau, Travel | 6 Comments

What’s Not To Love?

Posted on February 2, 2025 by If It Was Today

We freakin love New Zealand. It’s the same latitude as Ottawa, other than being “S” rather than “N”. What a difference one letter makes.

This morning in Queenstown it was cool with clouds hugging the mountains. And by “cool” I mean that a long sleeved shirt was appropriate.

We got away early (for us, anyway … 10:00 AM, because that is the usual checkout time here) and headed for Te Anau. The scenery on the drive was stunning … or at least Jan told me it was stunning. My eyes were glued to the road … the winding, and often narrow, road. I caught glimpses of the mountains from the corner of my eye, but I figured that focusing on the road was the best plan. I’m exaggerating … a bit … the roads were actually pretty good, but paying close attention was still a good idea.

It was cool, with broken cloud, for the drive, but by the time we arrived in Te Anau the sky began to clear, and we were treated to this view from the patio of our hotel room.

After we checked in, we walked along the shore of Lake Te Anau into the center of town, enjoying views like this.

There is a small park in the center of town called Te Anau Gardens, with open space and a variety of trees and flowers, so of course, I had to take more pictures.

By now the sky was completely clear. I love the way the deep blue of the sky contrasts with the plants.

And of course, everywhere you look you can also see mountains.

Some of the plants aren’t native to New Zealand … in fact they are often considered weeds. But they can still be beautiful, like this Mountain Ash, or Rowan.

There are increasing efforts to conserve native species, which is a good thing. I’m not sure if the next two plants are native, but they are definitely different than anything I’ve seen before.

The park had one other really cool thing, intended to encourage young readers. A story based on Māori legends was illustrated with a series of posters distributed around the park like a treasure hunt. It’s hard to describe -I know I’m not doing it justice – but it really was neat to follow. Here is one of the posters to give you an idea.

Right next to one of the posters a tree looked like it had a face. I’m not sure if this was intentional or accidental.

Te Anau has a surprising number of very good restaurants. We picked The Fat Duck and just barely managed to get reservations, on a Sunday evening. The place was hopping but we had a great meal. Jan discovered a great cider, which we will be looking for as we travel around.

And then it was back to the hotel, by the lake, along with many other people enjoying the evening.

As I’m writing this, I’m enjoying a cool breeze and watching the sun set, getting totally discombobulated because the sun is moving in the “wrong” direction. So confusing, but well worth it to be enjoying this instead of a snowstorm.

Did I mention that New Zealand if freakin awesome?